How This Investment Banker Turned CEO Is Rebuilding Children’s Skincare

Investment banker turned entrepreneur, Kimberley Ho is the founder of Evereden, a children’s skincare company dedicated to creating products that are natural and safe. When her girlfriends in Asia began begging Ho to bring back baby skincare products each time she went home, she discovered that the dominant skincare brands on the market contained toxins and harmful ingredients. Ho became obsessed with creating a new skincare line for babies — assembling a team of pediatric dermatologists from Stanford and Harvard to build products that are naturally-sourced and scientifically-backed, void of toxins and harmful ingredients. The result was Evereden: beautifully formulated body washes, shampoos, sunscreens and diaper creams that are effective and safe for babies’ fragile skin. Unlike other skincare brands, Evereden has zero tolerance for toxins, harmful or even questionable ingredients. Today, Ho launches Evereden by offering six core products that aim to create a new standard on caring for children’s skin.

In our interview, we discussed what sparked Ho’s passion to create Evereden, her career pivot and the impact she hopes to bring to the world with her products.

Kimberley Ho: After growing up in Malaysia, I moved to the US when I was 18 to study economics at Stanford. Although my friends joked that I was too “nice” to go into finance, I started my career in investment banking at Goldman Sachs, then became an investor at Oaktree Capital. My several years in finance taught me a lot about grit, guts and how to build a business — but ultimately I wasn’t able to be creative in those positions. I was itching for something different.

Traveling back and forth to Asia over the years, my girlfriends starting families would beg me to bring them natural and organic baby products from the US — they just weren’t on the market over there. But after doing some research, I realized that the formulas in US baby products weren’t as safe or effective as they claimed to be. I quit my job in finance and set out on a mission to rebuild children’s skincare from the ground up. One year later, I’m launching Evereden.

Fluker: How has your background in investment banking prepared you to start your own company?

Ho: During my time in finance, I invested in CPG companies that sold personal care products. I became intimately familiar with the brands on the market — their manufacturing processes, their formulas and more. I quickly learned that, by and large, most children’s skincare brands were using the same questionable ingredients, working with the same contract manufacturers that would hardly deviate from the standard formula. My background in finance taught me to carefully analyze the market, poke holes, and ask those manufacturers hard questions when formulating my own line. I was told ‘no’ a lot. But I kept pushing, and eventually found manufacturers and suppliers who were willing to create something entirely new with us.